The Knight Who Had No One to Fight By Me

Once upon a time there was a brave, brave knight. So brave he would fight 3 dragons at once, or 10 ogres at once, or 12 cyclopes at once. The knight only had one problem: he could not find any dragons, ogres, or cyclopes any where in the kingdom. So one day the knight went to his king and said: "O, king, I am tired of waiting for an opponent. So, with your Majesty's permission, I will go to the mountains, swamp lands ,and valleys seeking dragons, ogres ,and cyclops." The wise King knew all knights need some thing to fight. Fighting is just what they do. "Okay," said the King "but you are my best knight. I can not lose you to some monster. So you must pick one soldier to go with you, okay?" "Yes, your Majesty." said the brave knight, but the knight just got on his horse and left without a soldier, because he thought he was good enough to survive, but he got killed because he did not take the king's advise.

Goa

Have you ever been to Goa? Goa is in south west India with a beach and plenty of sand. We go to Goa every year for a conference. At least the parents do. We kids just tag along and go to some class that this year had not enough time put into the planing.
We go to Goa in January when the weather is good and and take a break from Delhi which around January is just another ice cube in the freezing world. If we went to Goa in the summer we would all die of heat stroke if we tried to walk to the beach, and even if we did make it to the beach we would melt on the sand.

Every time we go to Goa some one brings a soccer ball to the beach and we all have a huge soccer game. These soccer games only occur once or twice a year so these games are the high light of being at Goa.

During a game every one playing just wants to take a break from kicking a ball at a bottle in the middle of the beach that is smaller than it looks and go jump into the waves and put out their burning clothes.

So I guess I should tell you about last year's game. The score was zero all and our team was near the other team's soda bottle-goal. Some one passed to me and I took the shot. Seeing that bottle on it's side might have been the best part of the trip.

....Well, for our team.